Victoria Falls #1 Destination

The REGION of Victoria Falls has recently been given the acclaimed status of 6th out of the top ten regions to visit by Lonely-planet. In this short article we answer, why?

For years the region around Victoria Falls has fallen into a category of being part of “Southern Africa” and sometimes part of “South Africa”. Many would be forgiven for thinking that the Falls themselves are situated somewhere not far from Cape Town.

The Falls are as a matter of fact some 2000km North of Cape Town, One and a half hours flight from Johannesburg and 8 hour’s drive from the South African border with either Zimbabwe or Botswana.

The Victoria Falls are slap bang in the middle of a region that is so amazingly wild, you actually drive for 2 complete hours through forests and grasslands of wilderness before reaching them, with hardly any major settlement.

To the West of Victoria Falls

If you drive West of the Falls you find that you are only 45 minutes’ drive from the Chobe National Park. A massive Park that is renowned for its animal concentrations and bounds itself with the Okavango delta, the largest natural inland wetland in the world and responsible for some of the most remote but luxurious lodges and camps in Africa. You may also decide to keep going a little and find yourself in Namibia. Once again the Caprivi Strip of Namibia is only an hour and a half from the Falls themselves.

To the South of Victoria Falls

Drive just one hour South of Victoria Falls and you will be literally driving along the boundary of Hwange National Park. A park that is host to one of the highest concentrations of Elephant anywhere in Africa. You will also be close to the Chizarira National park and breath-taking views of the Lake Kariba.

To the North of Victoria Falls

Drive just three hours North and you will be in the Kafue National Park a massive park of open plains and wilderness that will suffice for the most selective of out-doors people. A little further North and you will make it to the Basanga Plains and the Liuwa Plains, both host to the second largest migration of Wildebeest and Zebra.

To the east of Victoria Falls

To go immediately east of the Falls the easiest route is through the dramatic Batoka Gorge and seated in a 16 foot raft you will be enjoying the best white water rafting experience in the world. Keep going downstream and only 100km away you will arrive in Lake Kariba. The largest man made lake in Africa and home to Tiger Fishing and houseboat experiences that have sent tourists away smiling for 50 years.

Not to mention

In the Falls themselves you can

Bungi off the famous Vic Falls Bridge, jet boat on the Zambezi, ride elephant, eat a mopane worm, game drive along the Zambezi river, watch vultures from a restaurant, canoe the Zambezi, quad bike the bushvelt, ride in a microlight in the spray of the Falls, eat breakfast in the Rainforest, sleep in an airconditioned luxury tent, stay at the world famous Victoria Falls Hotel, visit Mukuni Village, swim with crocodiles ( safely ), canopy tour through the gorge….just for starters !

So if you are asking yourself How did the Falls Make it to the top ten Lonely Planet Regions in the World. You now know it should be the No. 1 instead!

Fast facts:

~ David Livingstone, the Scottish missionary and explorer, is believed to have been the first European to view Victoria Falls on 16 November 1855 from what is now known as Livingstone Island, one of two land masses in the middle of the river, immediately upstream from the falls on the Zambian side.Livingstone named his discovery in honour of Queen Victoria, but the indigenous name, Mosi-oa-Tunya—”the smoke that thunders”—continues in common usage as well.

~ While it is neither the highest nor the widest waterfall in the world, it is classified as the largest, based on its width of 1,708 metres (5,604 ft)[6] and height of 108 metres (354 ft),[7] resulting in the world’s largest sheet of falling water. Victoria Falls is roughly twice the height of North America’s Niagara Falls and well over twice the width of its Horseshoe Falls. In height and width Victoria Falls is rivalled only by Argentina and Brazil’s Iguazu Falls.

~ Before 1905, the river was crossed above the falls at the Old Drift, by dugout canoe or a barge towed across with a steel cable. Rhodes’ vision of a Cape-Cairo railway drove plans for the first bridge across the Zambezi and he insisted it be built where the spray from the falls would fall on passing trains, so the site at the Second Gorge was chosenIn 1904 the Victoria Falls Hotel was opened to accommodate visitors arriving on the new railway
Reference : Wikipedia